MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2008

COMING TUESDAY

SMALLVILLE: "PERSONA"

The CW has released a description of "Persona," the next new episode of Smallville, scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 31.

Here's how the network describes the episode:

"While Clark is frozen in the Fortress, Bizarro takes over his life with Lana. Unaware she is with Bizarro, Lana enjoys the 'new Clark' and shares information she's gathered on a serial killer who is draining his victims of all trace minerals. The two conclude it must be Brainiac, and Bizarro sets off to find him. Lex is stunned at Lionel's reaction after Grant reveals he is a clone of Julian."

James Marsters returns as Brainiac, and Marc McClure, Jimmy Olsen from the Superman movies, guest-stars as Dax-Ur.

"Persona" was written by Holly Henderson and Don Whitehead and directed by Todd Slakin.

He is shown to the right with Ehtisham Rabbani, vice-president product strategy abd marketing, who is explaining the features of a Voyager cell phone.

At the event, Favreau suggested that Iron Man fans tune into tbe Super Bowl, indiciating there will be a commercial for the film, which opens May 2.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images and look for more Iron Man news soon here in The Continuum.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANIMATED SERIES

The Enforcers will be appearing in Kids' WB!'s upcoming The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.

Montana is in the first episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man, and a segment from that episode showing him flying a helicopter is featured in the latest promo clip from Kids' WB!. Also look for fellow Enforcers Fancy Dan and Ox.

The series will premiere on March 8 at 10 a.m. (ET).

In other Spider-Man news:

* Online retailers have revealed the first set of Hasbro's action figures from the series, revealing a first look at Venom and Doctor Octopus.

* Kevin Altieri and Michael Goguen are directing episodes for the second set of 13 episodes.

* Marvel Studios' Craig Kyle said that producer Greg Weisman had a convincing pitch for the series.

"Greg came in with a beautiful vision of this show and how he wanted to retell this story that so many of us know from the comics, from the film, from the previous series that had been done," Kyle said.

"And it's really daunting to come in with a character like Spidey and do him right and do him well. I think with our last series (on MTV), we had mixed experiences. We had a wonderful producer, but it really wasn't what we wanted to see when the show was done.

"When Greg came in, he had the whole first 13 laid out and it was captivating and it was exciting and it was true to who Spidey is and what Stan Lee did and those great artists back then."

* The Molten Man will be a villain in the second set of 13 episodes.

PERHAPANAUTS ONGOING

Image Comics on Monday announced that, following February's Perhapanauts Annual, Craig Rousseau and Todd Dezago will return in April with an ongoing series.

"Getting Perhapanauts out on an ongoing basis has been a goal of ours since its inception," Dezago said "As fans of the series know, we have a love for introducing background elements that eventually become major players later on. While we highly enjoyed our previous mini-series, this new ongoing series will allow us to fully explore all the ideas we've had brewing for years!"

Perhapanauts is a book that features quite a few familiar faces from urban legend, but with an entirely new view. Bigfoot heads up a team consisting of psychics, paranormals, dimension hoppers and even a chubacabara against menaces from beyond the outer edges of reality

"Drawing Perhapanauts would be any artist's dream come true - the book features all the best parts of superhero stories and tales of terror with a good balance of heart and suspense," Rousseau said. "It's a cliche, but here's it's true - we're set out to make a book where anything is possible."

BRIEFLY

* Above is a first look at covers -- with trade dress -- for Marvel Comics titles New Exiles #1, New X-Men #46 and Amazing Spider-Man #547.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

For covers and four- to six-page previews of Marvel Comics titles arriving in stores on Jan. 16, CLICK HERE.

* Writer Mark Millar announced that he and Bryan Hitch have extended their run on Fantastic Four to 16 issues. "My Marvel contract is up in June or July -- I can't remember -- but they offered me a really, really nice deal to stay an extra five years," Millar noted on his message board. "I genuinely haven't decided what I want to do yet. Having fun in the meantime."

* According to Top Cow Productions, it has received more than 2.5 million votes for its Pilot Season promotion. Readers have until Jan. 21 to select the two Pilot Season titles to receive series.

COMICS CONTINUUM BACK ISSUES

In case you missed The Continuum's coverage over the past month, here are some links. Click on the date to get the day's full report.